World Barista Championship – Day 1

ZacharyZachary.com has been video blogging the entire competition.  AMAZING!

I am extremey pleased to be able to give you, The performances of every competitor for Day 1 of the 2007 WBC.

Day One Overview – ZacharyZachary.com 

Be ready for a ridiculous number of hours spent watching the art of the best baristi in the world.

World Barista Competition – 2007

It’s about that time again.

 

The World Barista Competition is here!

WBC-2007

“The Big Sight”

Tokyo, Japan

July 31 – August 2

More information can be found:

http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com/

 

The United States will be represented by the current United States Barista Champion, Heather Perry.

If you came to the South Central Regional Barista Competition, you probably had a chance to see her performance first-hand. Stellar.

 

The Nordic countries generally dominate this thing, and Canada’s been nipping at their heals for years. Last year, the United States held its highest placement ever thanks to Matt Riddle of Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea with a Third place finish. Oddly enough, there is not a competitor listed for the home country of last year’s champion. Norway, however, the home of the legendary Tim Wendelboe is being represented, with Tim coaching his country on.

The UK is being represented, yet again, by the internet celebrity via www.jimseven.com, Mr. James Hoffmann who pulled off a 5th place finish last year.

 

Many believe that this year is our best chance to see a United States world champion in WBC history.

Cheer Heather on to take home the gold for the first time in US history!

 

Video blogging about the WBC is promised to come from www.zacharyzackary.com. I sure hope they deliver, as a lot of people helped pay their way to Tokyo just so we coffee fans who can’t make it in person can still get journalistic type updates.. for the first time in the history of the WBC.

 

If you’re interested, below is a link to the list of Competitors for this year’s World Barista Championship.

 

 

-TXCP

 

Antigua Coffee House, Pearland, TX Review

Robert Harmon posted his review of this coffee house in Pearland on CoffeeGeek. I thought it only fitting to include it here.

With permission, of course.

Like a moth drawn to a flame…

The TurboCrazy is out of whack (anyone know where I can get a refill?), so I
decided to give the local roaster another try. Previously I’d mentioned
their problems relating to espresso (I’ll let sleeping dogs lie, so maybe
the crescendo of barking will quite down). This time I bought a half pound
of their Costa Rican Full City roast to use at home. They had a good variety
of SO’s on hand, primarily Central American.

This store is still having trouble with the simple things. After weighing &
bagging my beans they tossed them on the counter & rang up the sale. Fine,
except the bag seemed a bit heavy to me, so I asked them to reweigh it.
Turns out I was given an extra half-pound because the clerk didn’t know how
to work the digital scale. I informed the owner of the problem, suggested
more training, paid for the full pound and left.

I ground enough for a couple of doubles & set about making two shots, one on
the Gaggia & one on the Bunn. Before I get into the results, let me once
again praise my newest acquisition – a Rancilio MD50 grinder. There’s not a
day goes by that I’m not reminded of why I like it so much better than the
Rosito Bisani/Rossi RR45 & Mazzer Super Jolly. Besides the obvious grind
quality there’s the matter of lower RPM’s resulting in quieter operation.
That plus the almost total lack of grounds flying about as it’s grinding &
dosing makes it a vast improvement in my opinion over the other two grinders
mentioned earlier.

Now, on to making the shots themselves. The beans were roasted nine days ago
& still in their prime. The shot I pulled on the Gaggia was done at a
temperature of 200F & the Bunn was done at 193F. Both shots produced full
shot glasses of crema and both were great tasting. The Bunn’s results were a
bit less sour (temp difference?) while the Gaggia’s tasted a bit sweeter.
The shot from the Gaggia was for me – a straight shot enjoyed with a
Lazzaroni macaroon. Yummm, I felt sorry for everyone not sharing one with
me. TASTY!

The shot from the Bunn went into the Ol’ Ball & Chain’s vanilla latte & got
raves from her (how she could tell given the pure vanilla extract, sweetener
and half & half, is beyond me).

Bottom line: Juan is on the right track with his coffee roasting at least.
This is the third SO from him that I’ve tried & each has been evenly
roasted, with lots of the varietals’ flavors present & loads of crema. While
the store in general still needs some improvement I can recommend his beans
as being as good as any I’ve had. If you happen to be in the area give the
Antigua Coffee House in Pearland, TX, a visit. Hey, you might get a twofer
bargain like they *tried* giving me.

REVISIT!

From a visit since the review above:

Like a moth to a flame…

Back to the Antigua Coffee House on Broadway I go. This time I was pleasantly surprised, as Juan took my earlier criticisms to heart and bought a Rossi RR45 espresso grinder. I had them make me a double of their Guatemalan Vienna roast and it was great, lots of crema and an even flavor from start to finish. Maybe not the cup-licking quality I make at home: I think the machine temps & pressure are a bit off. But this was the kind of drink a coffee house could build a reputation on.

Thanks for the review, Robert.

Antigua Coffee House
8201 Broadway St
Pearland, TX 77581
(281) 485-6670

NOTE: They could really use a website.

Read : Write

Featured Coffee – Brown Coffee Co. Espresso One: Cottonwood

The Brown Coffee Co. sent a bag of their first ever espresso blend they call Espresso One: Cottonwood, which is English for Alamo.

Fitting for a roasting outfit from San Antonio.

The label on the bag lists a flavor description of a coffee that is “Creamy and complex with a chocolaty base and a plush black currant character.”

For the most part, this description is quite accurate.  It’s a three-bean blend of very simple proportions.  25% 25% 50%.  Simple.  Concise.  It’s as close to letting the coffee speak for itself as you can get in a blend intended to be balanced enough for WBC standards to be met(meaning, a very specific defined proportion and balance of specific flavor characteristics with none overpowering of the others).

The chocolate is not so pronounced as in some other blends out there, but there is a distinct berry flavor.. but not a false berry flavor.  The flavor is that of fresh produce.  This is not something often achieved in espresso blending from my experience.  Not overly complex, a medium-heavy body, and one of the smoothest mouthfeels I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

If you’re looking for a new espresso to try, and you’d like to support a TX roaster, be sure you give this one a try.  Guaranteed to please.

Open House at Cuvee Coffee, July 27th.

Dan Streetman posted this on the old forums earlier today:

Hey everyone,

I want to invite you all to come see our new training facility next Friday.

We will be cupping coffees, playing on the espresso equipment, and also be running our Clover 1S.

Also, you can meet special guests Patrick Pierce, the newly crowned SCRBC champ, and Silence Huang, one of Coffeegeeks resident Latte Artist.

We will be hanging out from 10am – 4pm.  Our new training center is located at 2810 Louetta Rd Spring, TX 77379.

It should be a great time, and I look forward to seeing you all there!

I won’t be there, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go!